Media and the Machine – Trailer
I'm Rob Kelly, this is Media in the Machine, a show about the biggest technology shift of our lifetime and how to profit from it. Each week, I talk with the founders and CEOs closest to AI and content, The ones figuring this out in real time. I'm an AI optimist, not because this is easy, but because it's learnable.
Mystery Guest:I've rebuilt that entire thing with a single prompt. My four and a half years worth of work took me five minutes. Fifteen years later
Mystery Guest:The most powerful tools don't always come with a clear map.
Mystery Guest:I don't know what the mission is of OpenAI, Anthropic or Perplexity. Amazon, Microsoft, like what is the mission?
Rob Kelly:If you're building something, content, a company or career, it's easy to drift if you don't understand the terrain.
Mystery Guest:If you rely on partners like Google for say your traffic, you're building on rented land. I don't even think you're renting. I think they're renting you with an option
Mystery Guest:to buy. The old rules are changing fast.
Mystery Guest:AI is eating that world of free traffic.
Rob Kelly:The good news is new models are emerging. People are figuring this out in real time.
Mystery Guest:When your content is used, you get paid for it. And that aligns the incentives between the AI companies and the rights holders.
Mystery Guest:From pure cash standpoint, we went from losing close to $20,000,000 to being $10,000,000 positive.
Rob Kelly:To understand how power actually works
Mystery Guest:at the top, I pay close attention
Rob Kelly:to the people who've been closest to it and the stories they tell.
Mystery Guest:Yeah. Sam was there, so was Elon and most of the other big players from OpenAI and DeepMind.
Mystery Guest:And sometimes, Power is very human. I was literally in the lift in the elevator going to the airport when I was called back into the office and they said Rupert's coming two weeks into the job and Rupert walks in with his entourage and he sits in the front row and he was like where's that number from? Where do you get that from? What do
Rob Kelly:you mean by that? And he's like straight into the detail. Through all this, I'm building my own AI content business too and pressure testing these ideas in real time. But it's not just about what we can build, but why it matters.
Mystery Guest:My dad, who has been one of my truly best friends and closest advisors, if I could preserve him his thinking for his entire life, yeah, that would be amazing.
Rob Kelly:Well, this is Media in the Machine. If you wanna hear about the next new episode, make sure you hit follow on the show in your podcast app. Thanks again, and see you next time.
